During a White House press briefing on Monday, March 30, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that he anticipates the return of the coronavirus to the country in fall this year. This prediction has come after the experts predicted the Covid-19 could be cyclic.
Dr Anthony Fauci was addressing the press and answering a few questions about the coronavirus during the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Monday. Fauci is predicting the return of the virus in September to December because of the transmissibility.
The US President Donald Trump was asked about the second outbreak's possibility to which he replied by saying that he hopes it doesn't happen but the US is prepared for such a situation. Fauci also said that the second outbreak would be a "different ballgame". He said that the US has better understanding since the first case. The country also has better test abilities and contact trace. He also said that the vaccine is being developed.
"What we're going through now is going to be more than just lessons learned, it's going to be things that we have available to us that we did not have before," Fauci said during the press briefing.
Extention of the social distancing and more cases
Fauci also defended the President's decision to extend the social distancing measure taken in New York as numbers haven't gone down in the region. On Monday the US death toll surpassed 3,000 and there were more than 163,000 cases confirmed in the country. Amid the increasing numbers, Trump had said that he would want the country's economy to be"raring to go" by Easter next month. But Fauci has said on Sunday that there could be around 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in America alone.
As of Monday, the global death count was at 37,600 while there were more than 784,000 confirmed cases. The first death of a US service member was also reported on Monday night because of the coronavirus. The New Jersey Guardsman was hospitalised on March 21. The Pentagon said that cases among the troops and their families have surpassed 1,000 in the US. The disease has caused the Pentagon to stop the recruiting facilities and scrap major training exercises.
The USNS Comfort, a navy hospital has also arrived in New York harbor on Monday. The ship has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms. This is also to alleviate the stress on the hospitals in the region.
